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Torah Aura Productions

Text by Joel Lurie Grishaver with Jane Golub and Alan RowePhotography by Hilda Cohen, Jane Golub, Alan Rowe and Steven Feinholz

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For Shirley Barish, who stands as a paradigm of dedication and excellence in the world of Jewish education.

Acknowledgements:This work has evolved through the insight and support of a number of good friends. It was inspired

by a number of congregational educators, specifically Paul Flexner, Melanie Berman, Joyce Seglin

and Janice Alper, who were foundational to the decision to attempt this work and to the work’s

direction. Throughout the process my two business partners, Jane Golub and Alan Rowe, tolerated

and supported the creative process. My thanks go to Everett Fox, whose Shocken translation, In

the Beginning, was inspiration for this rendition. Finally, we owe a significant debt to two friends

who have helped us to shape and perfect this material, thereby helping to pragmatize our vision.

Rabbi Joel Gordon consulted on the accuracy of the translation and the appropriateness of work

material. Seymour Rossel served as editor and helped to clarify and sharpen the manuscript.

Without Seymour’s careful pruning, this work would not have successfully emerged from its

creative tangle. My thanks to all involved.

Joel Lurie Grishaver12 Tammuz 5445

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grishaver, Joel Lurie.

Being Torah.

Summary. A colleciton of stories, commentaries and exercises based on the Biblical books of

Genesis and Exodus.

1. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Juvenile literature. 2. Bible. O.T. Exodus—Juvenile literature. [1. Bible stories—

O.T.] I. Golub, Jane Ellen. II. Cohen, Hilda, ill. iii. Rowe, Alan Brahm. IV. Title.

BS1239.G75 1986. 222:11077 86-16096

ISBN 0-933873-00-X (pbk.)

Copyright © 1986 Torah Aura Productions. Revised edition, 2005

Torah Aura Productions, 4423 Fruitland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90058

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher.

MANUFACTURED IN CHINA

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CONTENTS

For Parents and Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Being Torah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

BEFORE THE FIRST JEW 1. Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2. The Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3. Cain and Abel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4. And Introducing Noah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5. The Tower of Babel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

THE STORIES OF ABRAHAM 6. And Introducing Abram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

7. Abram: Leaving Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

8. Abram: Lot Leaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

9. Abram: A Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

10. Abram Becomes Abraham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

11. Sarah Laughs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

12. The Sodom Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

13. Isaac Is Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

14. The Binding of Isaac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

THE STORIES OF ISAAC 15. Rebekah at the Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

16. Rebekah Meets Isaac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

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THE STORIES OF JACOB 17. Round One: The Birth/Round Two: The Birthright . . . 73

18. Round Three: The Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

19. Jacob’s Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

20. A Double Wedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

21. Round Four: Wrestling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

22. Births and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

THE JOSEPH STORY 23. The Dreams Come True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

THE STORY OF THE EXODUS 24. The New King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

25. And Introducing Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

26. The Burning Bush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

27. The Ten Commandments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

28. Almost the Promised Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

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FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS

It is easy to imagine that many of the Torah’s stories were first told around a campfire. The Torah is filled with exciting images that a listener needs to picture in his or her mind. We are taken on a stormy ride on a boat filled with animals and shown a peaceful rainbow. We look up a ladder ascending into the heavens and then wrestle a stranger in the dark. We are given a coat of many colors, are thrown in a pit and emerge to hear more dreams. The Torah has an oral impact. It haunts the listener with images, intorduces him or her to significan role models and evolves the first layer of a moral fabric. Like our ancestors, most children first encounter the oral dynamic of Torah, hearing its stories long before they study its texts. They are told or read stories that become the basis for crafts, drama, discussion and other extensions of imagination.

The Torah, however, is more than a collection of bedtime stories. Its stories are precisely crafted texts that need careful, close reading. Much of the Torah’s depth comes from the way its stories are told. When we do look closely, we find stories written in specific patterns, with words reused a specific number of times, with significant insight communicated through subtle word changes and with word-symbols evolved through a series of usages. We are taught to be “keepers,” first of a garden, then of our brother and finally of a covenant. We are made to feel like “strangers” in Canaan and in Egypt and then are taught to protect and help the “stranger in our midst.” Moving through the mythic fabric of the Torah’s tales is the concise evolution of a significant vocabulary of Jewish existence. The Jewish people’s relationship with Torah is indeed rooted in an oral experience, but its foundation lies in the close reading of its text.

Being Torah has been designed to begin the development of this second relationship with Torah. It has been crafted so third-to fifth-grade students can apply their reading skills to unlock their own discovered meaning in the Torah’s text. To facilitate this relationship, Being Torah has been constructed around special translations of the masoritic text. The text has been designed to be true to the patterns, language and style of the original, while limiting the vocabulary and syntactic complexity of the English. These translations have been prompted to reveal themes, word echoes, and other elements of narrative artistry. In addition, the material has been edited to provide sequences of usuable length and to allow for a nonsexist first encounter with this core source.

Accompanying these translations are commentaries. Here, voiced as children’s responses, is a set of model reactions to the text that serve as discussion triggers. Used together with the Being Torah Student Commentary, Being Torah is the perfect book to introduce a child to Torah.

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BEING TORAH

Around 300 years ago there was a famous rabbi named Dov. People used to call Dov the Maggid. Maggid means storyteller. He was a very famous teacher, and students came from everywhere to study Torah with him. They thought if they could repeat every lesson and insight, they would really know Torah.

The Maggid, however, had one special lesson. He used to tell his students,

DON’T JUST SAY WORDS OF TORAH, BE TORAH.

This book is all about Being Torah.

Sometimes you may find yourself walking down the street and singing a song you heard on the radio or that you just heard on your stereo. Often you don’t even remember deciding to sing that song. It is just a part of you that comes out on its own. Being Torah is like that, too.

The Torah contains lots of stories that are told in special ways. Both the stories and how they are told are important. This book can help you discover the power in the words that make up the Torah. Soon you may find yourself walking down the street and thinking of words like God’s image, brother’s keeper or remember the covenant. Making these words part of you is really Being Torah.

Joel Lurie Grishaver

The Torah is something that every Jew studies. At my cousin’s bat mitzvah they had my grandmother come up and hand the Torah to Unlce David, who handed it to my cousin Debby. Jews are always passing the Torah from one person to another. It is not just handing the scroll from one person to another. It is also passing all the wisdom and all of the tradition. Being Torah is learning all about the Torah and passing that on to other people.

Bible stories aren’t fairy tales. When you read the Torah, you don’t find any dragons, witches, knights or castles. The people in the Bible are heroes because they are usually trying to become the best they can be by learning from God. Being Torah is joining Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Moses in becoming the best possible you that you can be. Study Torah is like having God as a teacher.

When I was really little, and before I could read on my own, one of my parents would sometimes read me a Bible story before I went to sleep. Other times they would tell me a story where I was part of the story and where I would help the hero in the end. Now I can read for myselfm and I even do it under the covers with my flashlight. I still like to pretend that I am part of the story. I guess Being Torah means seeing myself as part of the Torah.

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Commentary

Harrison

Sachi

Owen

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Beginnings:God created the heavens and the earth.The earth was unformed.Darkness was over the deep.The breath of God was over the waters.

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God said: “Let there be light.” And there was light. God said: “Good.”

God called the light: “Day.” God called the darkness: “Night.”

There was evening. There was morning. Day one.

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God said: “Let there be a space between the waters.”And God made the space.God called the space: “Sky.”

There was evening.There was morning.A second day.

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God said: “Let dry land appear.”And it was so.God called the dry land: “Earth.”God called the waters: “Sea.”God said: “Good.”God said: “Let plants and green things grow.”And it was so.God said: “Good.”

There was evening.There was morning.A third day.

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God said: “Let there be lights in the sky.They will be signs for the seasons, for the days and for the years.”And it was so.God made two great lights.One light to shine during the day.One light to shine at night.And the stars, too,God placed them in the sky, to give light on the earthand to divide between light and darkness.God said: “Good.”

There was evening.There was morning.A fourth day.

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God said: “Let the waters swim with life.And let the sky be filled with birds.”And God created the great sea-serpents,and the crawling things which filled the waters,and the birds, too.God said: “Good.”

God blessed them: “Be fruitful,and become many,and fill the waters and the sky.”

There was morning.There was evening.A fifth day.

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God said: “Let there be wildlife on the earth.”God made the wildlife.There were beasts and creeping things.God said: “Good.”

God said: “Let Us make people in Our image.Let them rule over the fish and the birds,over the beasts and the creeping things.”God made people in God’s image.God created people-both man and woman.

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God blessed them:God said to them:“Be fruitful,and become many,and fill the earthand master it.”

God said: “I give youall plants and all treesfor your food.”

God saw everythingGod had made.God said: “Very Good.”

There was evening. There was morning.The sixth day.

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The heavens and the earth were finished.God finished all the work on the seventh day.On the seventh day God rested from all the work.

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,because on it God rested from all the work.Everything had been created.

I know that this sounds funny, but when I think about the first Shabbat, I see an invisible God resting in an endless hammock. God didn’t rest from all the work because God was tired. Creating rest was the last job.

Sometimes when I tell the story of creation I feel like people want me to take a lie detector test. Every story in me is true. Truth is my middle name. What some people don’t understand is that there can be a difference between being true and being history.

When I read this story, I imagine taking a walk with God. When we pass something God created, God says, “Good.” When I ask God, “What about me?” God says, “VERY GOOD.”

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Commentary

David

Paulina

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This is the family history of the heavens and the earth from their creation.On the day when Adonai God made earth and heaven,there were no bushes and there were no plants growing,because Adonai God had not yet made rain.There was no Human to till the soil.

Adonai God formed Adam from the dust of the soiland breathed into his nose the breath of life.Adam came alive.

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Adonai God planted a Garden in Edenand put the Human there.Adonai God made trees grow from the soil,every kind of tree which is nice to look at and good to eat.The Tree Of Life was inthe middle of the gardenand the Tree of the Knowledgeof Good from Evil.

Adonai God put the Human, in the Garden of Eden,to work it and to keep it.

Adonai God commanded the Human“You may eat from every othertree in the gardenexcept from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good from Evil.You may not eat from it.Once you eat from it,you must die.”

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Adonai God said:“It is not good that the Human is alone.I will make a helper who fits with the Human.”

So Adonai God formed from the soilall the wild beasts and all the birds.And brought each to the Human to see whatthe Human would call it.Whatever the Human called the animal,that became its name.

But for the Human,no helper who fit could be found.

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Adonai God made the Human sleep a deep sleepand took one rib.Adonai God built the rib into a womanand brought her to Adam.

Adam said:“She is the one,Bone from my bone, Flesh from my flesh.She shall be called Wo–manbecause she was taken from Man.”

Now the two of them, Adam and his wife, were naked,but they were not embarrassed.

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In this story, people are directly connected to the soil. Look for the places where this happens.

This story also talks about the creation of MAN and WOMAN.

In English, we make the word WOMAN by ading WO to the beginning of the word MAN.

In Hebrew we do it by adding AH to the end of the word EESH. MAN is EESH. WOMAN is EESH-AH.

WordplaySometimes we can learn a lot from just a word or two. Because the Torah was written in Hebrew, sometimes we need to look at Hebrew words to find out part of the message.

DAM is the Hebrew word for BLOOD.

It is part of the word AHDAM. AHDAM is the Hebrew word for PERSON.

The word AHDAM is part of the word AHDAMAH, which means EARTH (as in dirt and soil).

The snake was the sneakiest of the animals that Adonai God had made.It said to the woman: “Did God really say that you may not eat from any of the trees in the Garden?”

The woman said to the snake:“We may eat the fruit from any of the other trees

in the garden, but God said: ‘The fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden,

you may not eat it, and you may not touch it,or you will die.’”

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The snake said to the woman:“You are not going to die.Rather, God knows that on the day you eat from it,your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods,knowing Good from Evil.”

The woman saw that the tree was good for eatingand that it was nice to look atand that the tree was a source of knowledge.She took a fruit and ate it.

She gave it to her husband, and he ate it.

The eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

They sewed together fig leaves and made themselves clothing.

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They heard the soundof Adonai Godwalking around in the gardenat the windy time of the day.Adam and his wifehid themselvesfrom Adonai Godin the middle of the treesof the Garden.

Adonai God called to Adamand said to him:“Where are you?”He said:“I heard You in the garden,and I was afraidbecause I was naked,so I hid.”

God said:“Who told you that you were naked?Did you eatfrom the forbidden tree?”

Adam said: “The woman whom You gave meto be with me—she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”

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Adonai God said to the snake: “You shall be cursed.You shall go on your belly and eat dustall the days of your life.”

God said to the woman: “With pain you will give birth to children.”

And God said to Adam: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the forbidden tree, the soil will be cursed because of you. You will have to sweat and work for your bread until you return to the soil from which you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

Then Adam called his wife Eve (meaning the life-giver) because she was going to be the mother of all the living. Adonai made Adam and Eve clothing and dressed them.

Adonai God said: “Now people have become like Us, knowing Good from Evil. Next, they could take and eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.”

So Adonai God sent them away from the Garden of Eden, to farm the soil from which they were taken. God placed a flaming ever-turning sword to guard the path to the Tree of Life.

I’ve always imagined that the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE was a kind of library growing out of a tree with books growing out of the branches. I’ve always wanted to climb it, snuggle up on a branch and just read. I don’t know what the TREE OF LIFE looks like.

This story always causes trouble. Whenever we read it, the boys and girls always start fighting. The boys all say, “We’re better because God made us first.” Then the girls say, “No way! God made all the mistakes with the boys. Girls are the new, improved model.” I always figured that God made Eve out of Adam’s side so that the two would be side-by-side.

I really think that this is just a story about growing up. In the beginning Adam and Eve are like babies. They run around naked in the Garden, and God does everything for them. In the end God dresses them, and they have to go to work.

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Angelica

Joey

Rachel

Commentary

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Adam knew his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: “Cain means I got a man with God’s help.” Later on she gave birth to Abel, his brother.

Abel became a shepherd. Cain farmed the soil.

When time passed, Cain brought the fruit of the soil as a gift-offering for Adonai. Also Abel brought the best firstborn of his flock.

Adonai accepted Abel and his gift, but Cain and his gift Adonai didn’t accept.